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1 US VA: Editorial: Pot ShotsMon, 12 Dec 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)          Area:Virginia Lines:42 Added:12/15/2016

Virginia lawmakers have shown scant inclination to legalize marijuana, but it might not matter. Law enforcement seems to be doing it for them.

In the past two years, arrests and charges for marijuana crimes have dropped 14 percent - and "it ain't because less people are smoking marijuana," one defense lawyer tells the Daily Press. In Newport News, charges have dropped 60 percent - perhaps in part because prosecutors there decided a few years ago not to prosecute misdemeanor possession by adults.

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2 US VA: New Study Critical Of Virginia Driver's License SuspensionsMon, 12 Dec 2016
Source:Roanoke Times (VA) Author:Green, Frank Area:Virginia Lines:244 Added:12/14/2016

RICHMOND - About 38,000 times each year, driving privileges are stripped from Virginians - not for traffic offenses, but instead for drug offenses.

Dubbed a relic of the war on drugs, Virginia law automatically suspends the licenses of anyone convicted of even minor drug offenses, reports a new Prison Policy Initiative study.

The study contends the law is counterproductive and unnecessarily burdens low-income offenders by limiting their ability to get or keep a job to pay court fines and costs or child support.

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3 US VA: Richmond Police Waging A Different War On DrugsSun, 29 May 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Evans, K. Burnell Area:Virginia Lines:175 Added:05/29/2016

Richmond police Capt. Michael Zohab is building an army for the war on drugs. But his fight, as supervisor of the city's narcotics unit, is not against the people using them.

Instead, the 28- year police veteran is laying the groundwork for the department to join a growing number of law enforcement agencies across the country whose precincts have become unlikely sanctuaries for those who want help getting off drugs. Rather than putting substance abusers in handcuffs, Zohab wants to give them a hand up in the fight of their lives. And he needs all the help he can get.

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4 US VA: Column: For Some It's A Joke, for Others It's PrisonThu, 12 May 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Crisp, John M. Area:Virginia Lines:96 Added:05/13/2016

You might not like President Obama's political philosophy or leadership style, but you have to admit that he is one cool president.

If you're unconvinced, consider his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 30. His poise and charm were on full display, and his comedic timing was impeccable.

Still, his best joke made me cringe a little: He said that his popularity rating had been rising. In fact, he said, "The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major."

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5 US VA: Opiate Deaths Kept Increasing In Va. In 2015Sun, 24 Apr 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Ramsey, John Area:Virginia Lines:240 Added:04/24/2016

Toll Tied to 40% Spike in Heroin Overdoses

Michael Carter felt a brief flash of relief before searing grief consumed him.

His son's life had ended, but so, too, had the nights spent wondering when police would show up at his Hanover County home to tell him Graham had fatally overdosed.

A year later, Carter is left with the pain, and a question: How many more sons and daughters will die as state and federal officials pledge progress on stemming the tide of epidemic heroin and prescription pill abuse?

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6 US VA: PUB LTE: Separate The Good Drugs From The BadSat, 16 Apr 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Wines, Kevin Area:Virginia Lines:42 Added:04/16/2016

Reading Bart Hinkle's Commentary column, "Coming out of the drug-war haze," got me fired up about the war on drugs.

There is a widespread misconception that all drugs are bad when in reality there are good drugs and bad drugs. The problem arises when propaganda is spread labeling less harmful drugs such as common psychedelics ( marijuana, LSD, Psilocybin) as brain-melting substances that induce schizophrenia and reefer madness. In actuality such drugs only act as a catalyst in bringing to surface underlying mental conditions.

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7 US VA: 'It's More Than Just an Addiction - It's A Disease.'Sun, 10 Apr 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Evans, K. Burnell Area:Virginia Lines:163 Added:04/10/2016

Brian Coddington, 29, relapsed two weeks into another second chance last month. Chesterfield Sheriff Karl Leonard rejects criticism of the jail's drug programas being soft on crime.

He was out on bond and in a recovery program, awaiting a court date in Chesterfield County on charges stemming from his heroin addiction.

This time, for once, he knew exactly what to do. So on March 23 his mother drove him to the Chesterfield jail on Mimms Road, where he met his bail bondsman and turned himself over to the custody of Sheriff Karl Leonard.

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8 US VA: Column: Coming Out Of The Drug-War Haze?Sun, 03 Apr 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Hinkle, A. Barton Area:Virginia Lines:126 Added:04/03/2016

President Obama's recent speech on the opioid overdose epidemic offers a ray of hope that the country's approach to drugs might one day adopt what has been called the first rule of American business: When all else fails, try doing it right.

Noting with considerable understatement that "treatment is underfunded," the president proposed $ 1.1 billion for expanded opioid- addiction treatment. This is a good step in the right direction. But it is still $ 50 billion less than the U. S. will spend this year alone on its current, fatally flawed policy of the war on drugs, and only onethird of what the federal government allocates to lock up drug criminals - whose incarceration accounts for half of the entire Bureau of Prisons budget.

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9 US VA: PUB LTE: Legalize Pot Before It's Too LateSat, 12 Mar 2016
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Walton, Mike Area:Virginia Lines:38 Added:03/12/2016

In your editorial about the passing of a bill to allow 151proof grain alcohol, you mentioned that moonshine and marijuana are off-limits because the state can't make money off them. That shows how behind the times the General Assembly is.

Legislators should jump all over legalizing marijuana in a hurry. It will come sooner or later, so make it sooner. Colorado became the first state to make more off taxes on marijuana than alcohol.

The history of the gambling industry shows that you need to be in there first and fast. Casino gambling in Atlantic City was big and profitable for everyone. Some of the first Indian reservations that had casinos did very well. Then other states and tribes got in the gaming business and revenues dropped. Look at what a shell the boardwalk at Atlantic City is today.

Things move faster nowadays, so the good old boys at the Capitol need to step up the pace and legalize marijuana quickly - they can then slow down and mellow out after doing so.

HENRICO.

[end]

10 US VA: Lawmakers Clear Last Obstacle for Producing TherapeuticWed, 09 Mar 2016
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Vozzella, Laura Area:Virginia Lines:51 Added:03/10/2016

Richmond- A bill meant to pave the way for producing therapeutic marijuana oils in Virginia cleared its last legislative hurdle on Tuesday.

The Senate voted 39 to 0 in favor of the bill, with Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) not voting. Parents with severely epileptic children, who have struggled to obtain the oils used to treat the condition, broke into tears as they watched the vote from the Senate gallery.

Last year, the General Assembly passed a law intended to make it easier for people with severe forms of epilepsy to use two oils derived from marijuana, which lack the plant's intoxicating prop carved erties but help alleviate debilitating seizures. The bill provided a way for epileptics or their legal guardians to avoid prosecution for possession of cannabidiol oil (also known as CBD) and THC-A oil.

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11 US VA: Va. Pot Arrests Defy TrendFri, 27 Nov 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Jackman, Tom Area:Virginia Lines:123 Added:11/27/2015

Cases Rose 76% Over 11-Year Study

Blacks Accused Three Times More Than Whites

While the trend in much of the United States is moving toward decriminalization or legalization of marijuana, Virginia is heading in the opposite direction: With sharply rising arrest totals for the possession of pot and a disproportionate number of black people arrested in the Commonwealth, according to a new study based on state data reported to the FBI.

Although marijuana arrests dropped 6.5 percent nationwide between 2003 and 2014, possession arrests in Virginia increased by 76 percent during that period, according to research by the Drug Policy Alliance in New York. And arrests of black people in Virginia for marijuana increased by 106 percent from 2003 to 2013, accounting for 47 percent of the state's arrests even though Virginia's population is only 20 percent black. The statistics were compiled by Jon Gettman, a public policy professor at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., and follow his national marijuana arrest analysis for the American Civil Liberties Union in 2013. That study showed that nationwide, black people were 3.7 times more likely to be arrested than whites for marijuana and that 88 percent of the country's arrests were for marijuana possession.

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12 US VA: PUB LTE: War On Drugs Is Insanely AbsurdWed, 18 Nov 2015
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:McRae, Scott Area:Virginia Lines:44 Added:11/19/2015

The war on drugs just went from utter failure to absolute absurdity. I went into the pharmacy to pick up a couple of

prescriptions and thought I'd pick up some cold pills as I had started the sniffles after being in the cold rain. I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, so any help I can get is a blessing.

The pharmacist had started with the ID check and signature rigmarole that one has to undergo to buy a perfectly legal over-the-counter medicine when the computer told her I couldn't buy any yet. As it had been months since I had bought my last 20 (spring allergies), I questioned it, and the other pharmacist said that "Methcheck" had been down all day so nobody could buy any.

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13 US VA: Column: Bernie Sanders Is Right, But Not EnoughWed, 04 Nov 2015
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Hinkle, A. Barton Area:Virginia Lines:109 Added:11/07/2015

While it's hard to pinpoint accurately, estimates place the current number of Americans in Alcoholics Anonymous at more than 1.2 million. AA members meet often; today alone there will be more than 50 AA meetings within a 50-mile radius of downtown Richmond. Attend just about any of them and you likely will hear personal testimonies about the shocking degree of human misery alcohol can inflict.

If you prefer data to anecdotes, consider this: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that from 2006 to 2010, "excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths ... shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years. Further, excessive drinking was responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20-64 years. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2010 were estimated at $249 billion."

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14US VA: Column: A Bipartisan Marijuana MythFri, 16 Oct 2015
Source:News Leader, The (VA) Author:Lane, Charles Area:Virginia Lines:Excerpt Added:10/18/2015

It seems that no presidential debate this year would be complete without denunciations of the drug laws, which, it is alleged, result in long prison terms for thousands of people, disproportionately African Americans, who are guilty only of low-level offenses, thus fueling "mass incarceration."

At the last Republican debate, on Sept. 16, former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina charged that "two-thirds of the people in our prisons are there for nonviolent offenses, mostly drug-related."

Apropos of former Florida governor Jeb Bush's admitted youthful marijuana use, Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky) observed that "there is at least one prominent example on the stage of someone who says they smoked pot in high school, and yet the people going to jail for this are poor people, often African Americans and often Hispanics, and yet the rich kids who use drugs aren't."

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15 US VA: PUB LTE: Get On Board With Marijuana ReformSun, 06 Sep 2015
Source:Charlottesville Daily Progress (VA) Author:Werth, Lennice Area:Virginia Lines:54 Added:09/06/2015

I understand the concern about the artificial marijuana called "spice," detailed in The Daily Progress story "Police concern about 'spice' rises" (Aug. 31, print edition; Aug. 30, online).

The reason people use fake marijuana is because the real stuff is illegal or because they might be trying to get through a drug test for their employment or the criminal justice system. If it were not for these situations, there would be no such thing as "spice."

The reason doctors don't know what they are dealing with is that the law plays catch-up with these substances. By the time the latest thing becomes illegal, something new and potentially more dangerous has taken its place.

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16 US VA: OPED: Stop Subsidizing Drug CartelsSun, 09 Aug 2015
Source:Roanoke Times (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:98 Added:08/10/2015

The Virginia State Police just released their 2014 Crime in Virginia report. Despite opinion polls showing that a majority of Virginians wants to see marijuana legal for personal use, Virginia continues to prioritize marijuana criminalization. There were 22,948 arrests for marijuana in 2014. Eight percent of all Virginia arrests are for marijuana offenses. Never mind the cost of arresting almost 23,000 Virginians for marijuana. Think about the opportunity costs and the impact on public safety. Police time spent arresting non-violent marijuana consumers is police time not spent going after murderers, rapists and child molesters.

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17 US VA: Editorial: Total FailureSun, 17 May 2015
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)          Area:Virginia Lines:89 Added:05/18/2015

"We had a war on drugs," says Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera. "We've lost miserably. That's the best I can tell you."

Cervera is a member of a state task force set up by Gov. Terry McAuliffe to examine the problem of prescription drug and heroin abuse. His comments echo those of Rick Clark Jr., the police chief in Galax, who calls the drug war a "dismal failure. ... I don't think we can throw money at it. Obviously we have not arrested our way out of it." Like others on the panel, they contend society needs a new approach to the drug scourge.

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18 US VA: 'We've Been a Dismal Failure': VA. Police Veterans onWed, 13 May 2015
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Smith, Tammie Area:Virginia Lines:90 Added:05/14/2015

Galax Police Chief Rick Clark Jr. has been in law enforcement for about 40 years, long enough to make observations about effective crimefighting policies.

Locking up drug addicts is one policy that has not worked out so well, said Clark, who is serving on the Governor's Task Force on Prescription Drug and Heroin Abuse that met Tuesday in Richmond.

Clark said he is seeing children and grandchildren of people he arrested years ago in his Southwest Virginia city get arrested and prosecuted for the same sort of drug offenses their parents did.

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19 US VA: Student Journalism In The Web AgeMon, 06 Apr 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Balingit, Moriah Area:Virginia Lines:118 Added:04/07/2015

Censorship Case Involving VA. School Paper Illustrates Changes

It's called "dabbing," and it involves smoking a distilled version of marijuana's active ingredient off of a nail, delivering a potent high.

When Fauquier High School senior Sara Rose Martin heard that her peers were experimenting with the technique, she decided to pen a story about it for the student newspaper, the Falconer, of which she is co-editor in chief.

"I was just interested in exactly what it was and exactly what the effects of it were," she said. "I wanted my peers to know what they were doing."

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20 US VA: Column: How To Kill Someone And Get Away With ItWed, 01 Apr 2015
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Hinkle, A. Barton Area:Virginia Lines:107 Added:04/02/2015

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, once considered one of the most conservative in the country, has moved to the left in recent years. But if you think that means it is showing a greater regard for individual rights and civil liberties, think again. According to a ruling the court handed down on March 13, the appropriate range of punishments for possessing a small amount of marijuana includes summary execution.

In 2005 (the wheels of justice can grind exceedingly slowly) the police in Cambridge, Md., acted on a tip and found a small amount of marijuana residue in a trash can. At 4:30 a.m. on May 6, a SWAT team executed a search warrant on the apartment of Andrew Cornish. A jury would later find the commandos failed to knock and announce themselves properly. As they rushed through the apartment, Cornish came out of the bedroom with a sheathed knife in his hand. The police say he advanced on them. One of the officers shot Cornish twice in the head, killing him.

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21 US VA: Column: Not-Pot Leaf Gets 6th-grader In Big TroubleSun, 15 Mar 2015
Source:Roanoke Times (VA) Author:Casey, Dan Area:Virginia Lines:314 Added:03/19/2015

An 11-year-old boy at Bedford Middle School was suspended for 364 days after being caught with a substance that tested negative for marijuana.

At first blush it sounds like an open-and-shut school disciplinary matter in a zero-tolerance age:

Some schoolchildren claim another student bragged about having marijuana. They inform school administrators. An assistant principal finds a leaf and a lighter in the boy's knapsack. The student is suspended for a year. A sheriff's deputy files marijuana possession charges in juvenile court.

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22 US VA: Governor Allows Pot Oil To Treat EpilepsyFri, 27 Feb 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Weiner, Rachel Area:Virginia Lines:85 Added:02/28/2015

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) signed legislation Thursday allowing the use of medical marijuana oil for people suffering from severe epilepsy.

As marijuana becomes legal in the District, advocates in neighboring Virginia said they thought even this first small step toward medical use would never be taken.

"They said hell would freeze over before this would ever pass," said Robert Smith, whose 14-year-old daughter, Haley, has daily seizures - and suffered one during a committee hearing on the bill this year. "Seeing how horrific it is, it softened a lot of hearts," he said.

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23 US VA: Va. House Allows Pot Extracts For EpilepsyWed, 11 Feb 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Vozzella, Laura Area:Virginia Lines:158 Added:02/11/2015

Bill Blocks Prosecution for Possession of Oils

Richmond - Parents of epileptic children gathered in the gallery of Virginia's law-and-order House of Delegates on Tuesday, almost afraid to look as their long-shot medical marijuana bill came up for a vote.

"I couldn't even look at the board," said Teresa Elder of Springfield, who considers two marijuana extracts a "last hope" for controlling seizures in her 22-year-old son, Tommy.

When she finally stole a glance at the lighted-up voting board, Elder was shocked to see only green.

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24 US VA: PUB LTE: Hope Is Hard To FindSat, 07 Feb 2015
Source:Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) Author:Horn, Delores T. Area:Virginia Lines:30 Added:02/10/2015

Re 'Epileptics say success of marijuana drugs merits state's OK' (front page, Jan. 30): Thank you, thank you, thank you!

As the mother of an adult son with epilepsy, I was so moved to see this story about seizure disorders. There is not very much written about how this life-altering situation affects so many people of all ages.

When all available prescriptions and surgeries have not been successful for a patient, why would there ever be a question about a medical marijuana trial? We should try anything. We should be compassionate. We need some hope where there is little.

Delores T. Horn

Norfolk

[end]

25 US VA: Column: Fix U. S. Drug Policies to Ease ImmigrationSun, 08 Feb 2015
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Gendle, Mathew H. Area:Virginia Lines:112 Added:02/08/2015

Throughout its history, the United States' approach to controlling recreational intoxicants has varied. Up until the early part of the 20th century, drug use in the U. S. was completely unfettered - heroin, morphine and other substances were sold openly and without restriction. In fact, cocaine, various opiates and syringe kits were once available for order from the Sears & Roebuck catalog.

Beginning with 1914' s Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, a slew of laws burst forth to regulate cocaine, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs of abuse. These laws were often the product of blatant racism, sensationalism and political theater, and they set the stage for current regulations that function as ham-fisted political instruments rather than data-backed guardians of public health.

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26 US VA: Limited Medical Marijuana AdvancesFri, 06 Feb 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Vozzella, Laura Area:Virginia Lines:26 Added:02/06/2015

The Virginia Senate passed a bill Thursday that would allow people with severe epilepsy to possess a form of medical marijuana without fear of criminal prosecution.

The measure would allow the use of two oils extracted from marijuana that lack the plant's intoxicating properties but help alleviate debilitating seizures. The bill provides a way for epileptics or their legal guardians to avoid prosecution for possession of cannabidiol oil (also known as CBD) and THC-A oil.

Sponsored by Sen. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax), the bill passed with near-unanimous support. The bill still needs to go to the House and to Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) for his signature.

[end]

27 US VA: Sen. Wants To Allow Small Amount Of PotSun, 25 Jan 2015
Source:Progress-Index, The (VA)          Area:Virginia Lines:23 Added:01/26/2015

RICHMOND - State Sen. Adam Ebbin wants Virginia to join more than a dozen states that have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The lawmaker is pushing a bill that would downgrade the offense from a criminal charge to a civil one with a fine of up to $100.

Under current Virginia law, a criminal arrest for having a small amount of marijuana could have serious consequences - from a six-month driver's license suspension to having to check a box on job applications admitting to a criminal history, said Ebbin, D-Alexandria. There also is a wide racial disparity in how the law is enforced.

[end]

28 US VA: Legislators Push To Decriminalize Two Forms Of PotFri, 23 Jan 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Portnoy, Jenna Area:Virginia Lines:69 Added:01/23/2015

RICHMOND - State Sen. Adam P. Ebbin wants Virginia to join more than a dozen states that have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The lawmaker is pushing a bill that would downgrade the offense from a criminal charge to a civil one with a fine of up to $100.

Under current Virginia law, a criminal arrest for having a small amount of marijuana could have serious consequences - from a six-month driver's license suspension to having to check a box on job applications admitting to a criminal history, said Ebbin (D-Alexandria). There also is a wide racial disparity in how the law is enforced.

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29 US VA: Bills Would Allow Use of Cannabis Oil for Children WithWed, 21 Jan 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Jackman, Tom Area:Virginia Lines:107 Added:01/21/2015

The push by parents of children with epilepsy to obtain medical marijuana in Virginia has resulted in three new bills in the General Assembly that would allow the use of a cannabis oil to battle their children's debilitating seizures.

On Thursday, the parents and children plan to aggressively lobby the legislators who will consider the bills in the Virginia House and Senate, and hope to show them a powerful seven minute video of families pleading for legal access to the oil. The video also shows children in the throes of epileptic seizures and memorializes those who have died as a result of intractable epilepsy.

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30 US VA: OPED: Time For Marijuana Reform In VirginiaSun, 11 Jan 2015
Source:Roanoke Times (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:98 Added:01/12/2015

The last time a marijuana decriminalization bill was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly session the year was 2011 and the patron was Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, a former assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school. The bill never made it out of committee. The Virginia General Assembly will again consider a marijuana decriminalization bill in the 2015 session, this one sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria.

The fact that marijuana decriminalization in Virginia has been championed by a conservative Republican from southern Virginia and a liberal Democrat from Northern Virginia is telling. Marijuana law reform is a bipartisan issue supported by a majority of Americans. The public opinion trend lines are clear.

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31 US VA: PUB LTE: Time For Marijuana Reform In VirginiaWed, 07 Jan 2015
Source:Suffolk News-Herald (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:86 Added:01/09/2015

The last time a marijuana decriminalization bill was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly, the year was 2011 and the patron was Delegate Harvey Morgan (R-Gloucester), a former assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University'??s medical school. The bill never made it out of committee.

The General Assembly will again consider a marijuana decriminalization bill in the 2015 session, this one sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria).

The fact that marijuana decriminalization in Virginia has been championed by a conservative Republican from Southern Virginia and a liberal Democrat from Northern Virginia is telling. Marijuana law reform is a bipartisan issue supported by a majority of Americans. The public opinion trend lines are clear.

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32 US VA: OPED: Time For Marijuana Reform In VirginiaFri, 19 Dec 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:102 Added:12/24/2014

The last time a marijuana decriminalization bill was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly the year was 2011 and the patron was Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, a former assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school. The bill never made it out of committee. The Virginia General Assembly will again consider a marijuana decriminalization bill in the 2015 session, this one sponsored by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria).

The fact that marijuana decriminalization in Virginia has been championed by a conservative Republican from Southern Virginia and liberal Democrat from Northern Virginia is telling. Marijuana law reform is a bipartisan issue supported by a majority of Americans.

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33 US VA: Column: Eric Garner, Another Victim of the War on DrugsWed, 10 Dec 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Hinkle, A. Barton Area:Virginia Lines:95 Added:12/12/2014

When a grand jury refused last week to bring an indictment in the death of Eric Garner, the New Yorker who died from a policeman's chokehold, the outrage across the political spectrum was nearly universal. Left and right, libertarian and collectivist: Everybody was, for once, in agreement. For a moment or two. Then fissures began appearing. One of them concerned the role New York's cigarette taxes played - or didn't - in Garner's death.

You can make a good argument, as several commentators did, that the city's outlandishly high taxes contributed to Garner's death. Those taxes have created a huge black market in cigarettes, and the cops were busting Garner for selling "loosies," or individual cigarettes, on the street. Not long ago, New York enhanced the penalty for selling loosies, and "an order to crack down on the illegal sale of 75-cent cigarettes in Staten Island came directly from police headquarters, setting off a chain of events that ended in Eric Garner's death," the Daily News reported.

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34 US VA: Column: Leniency on Pot Far From a New Idea for VirginiaWed, 03 Dec 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Schapiro, Jeff E. Area:Virginia Lines:142 Added:12/05/2014

"Although marijuana is not a harmless drug, the weight of evidence demonstrates that its occasional or experimental use does not pose a significant hazard to individual health."

"Its use ... has few demonstrated social costs - such as drug-related crimes, highway fatalities or health crisis - and current research suggests that its occasional use does not present as great a health hazard as the abuse or use of many other commonly available substances."

Talking points in Colorado and Washington, both of which decriminalized pot by referendum in 2012? Pronouncements in 21 other states and Washington, D.C., that have legalized marijuana in some form? A news release by two Northern Virginia lawmakers pushing for decriminalization in 2015?

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35 US VA: Bill Would Soften Marijuana PenaltySat, 29 Nov 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Green, Frank Area:Virginia Lines:77 Added:11/29/2014

A bill that would decriminalize the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana has been introduced by state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Alexandria, for the coming General Assembly session.

The effort comes on the heels of legalization in two other states. Ebbin said there have been unsuccessful bills introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates in the past, but that this is the first he is aware of coming from the Senate.

"It would decriminalize simple possession of an ounce or less, but not decriminalize it to the extent done recently in Colorado and Washington state," he said.

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36 US VA: PUB LTE: Va. Has Much To Do To Cut Drug UseSat, 11 Oct 2014
Source:Charlottesville Daily Progress (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:60 Added:10/13/2014

Regarding the Oct. 5 editorial ("Stopping the drug flow will save our lives," The Daily Progress):

Stopping the flow of illegal drugs is easier said than done. Successful efforts to stop the flow of drugs are a very real threat to public safety. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime.

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37 US VA: OPED: Sharpe: Preventing Overdose Deaths In VirginiaWed, 01 Oct 2014
Source:Roanoke Times (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:96 Added:10/01/2014

Gov. Terry McAuliffe has announced a 10-step plan to expand health care to more than 200,000 Virginians. Step nine is to take bold actions to reduce deaths from prescription drug and heroin abuse. Last year, more Virginians died of overdose deaths than were killed in car accidents. The prescription drug problem has reached a crisis in Virginia, where some county death rates are the highest in the entire nation. McAuliffe intends to reduce the number of drug-related deaths in Virginia and will create a task force to combat prescription drug and heroin abuse.

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38 US VA: OPED: Preventing Overdose Deaths In VirginiaThu, 11 Sep 2014
Source:Suffolk News-Herald (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:96 Added:09/11/2014

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has announced a 10-step plan to expand health care to Virginians. Step nine is to take bold actions to reduce deaths from prescription drug and heroin abuse.

Last year, more Virginians died of overdose deaths than were killed in car accidents. The prescription drug problem has reached a crisis in Virginia, where some county death rates are the highest in the entire nation.

McAuliffe intends to reduce the number of drug-related deaths in Virginia and will create a task force to combat prescription drug and heroin abuse.

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39 US VA: LTE: Medical Marijuana Tests Are Taking PlaceSun, 31 Aug 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Goodlatte, Bob Area:Virginia Lines:32 Added:09/02/2014

The Times- Dispatch's premise in a recent editorial that "we can't run tests until we reclassify marijuana" is inaccurate. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA), as of Jan. 31, there were 28 active research grants on the possible therapeutic uses of marijuana.

The NIDA, the Drug Enforcement Agency ( DEA) and the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA) all have a clear course of action available for those applying to conduct this type of research. In May, the DEA even upped the amount of marijuana that can be produced for research purposes in the United States.

Regardless of the federal government's classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, clinical research can be conducted on marijuana and is being done today. To state otherwise is inaccurate.

6TH DISTRICT, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. WASHINGTON.

[end]

40 US VA: PUB LTE: In Ferguson, the Fruits of a Failed Drug WarFri, 29 Aug 2014
Source:Progress-Index, The (VA) Author:Fraser, Ronald Area:Virginia Lines:108 Added:08/30/2014

To the Editor:

In the 1960s, civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, and elsewhere faced local police officers armed with hand held batons, fire hoses, attack dogs and horse-mounted riot control officers.

Recently, in Ferguson, Missouri, civic rights protestors went up against aggressive local police officers equipped with body armor, automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers and at least one police sniper aiming a telescope-equipped assault rifle at the protestors.

Street protests today look a lot like those of the 1960s but, with drug war-driven militarization of local law enforcement agencies since then, the police response in Ferguson now looks a lot like urban warfare.

[continues 622 words]

41 US VA: Editorial: A Winning StrategySun, 13 Jul 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)          Area:Virginia Lines:49 Added:07/15/2014

A consensus stretching from one end of the ideological spectrum to the other has coalesced in support of the view that the war on drugs, as currently waged, is not working. Despite millions of arrests and billions in expenditures, the country's punishment-only approach has failed to stem drug use.

Some states, including Virginia, have launched alternative approaches such as drug courts - a reform this newspaper has reported on at length. Now localities are getting in on the act.

[continues 235 words]

42 US VA: Editorial: Victory For HempMon, 07 Jul 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)          Area:Virginia Lines:48 Added:07/12/2014

In the Colonies' early years, Virginia's House of Burgesses required planters to grow hemp. The plant - a close relative of marijuana - can be used for a variety of purposes, from the medicinal to the industrial. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other notables farmed the stuff. Hemp's utility remained unquestioned through WWII, when the federal government ran "Hemp for Victory!" propaganda campaigns.

But then came the War on Drugs, and suddenly hemp became suspect - even though it contains so little THC you'd have to smoke a whole bale to catch a minor buzz. Lumped in with psychoactive marijuana, industrial hemp became verboten.

[continues 217 words]

43 US VA: LTE: Why Is Heroin Still Flowing Out Of Afghanistan?Tue, 24 Jun 2014
Source:Progress-Index, The (VA) Author:Hoskin, Kay Area:Virginia Lines:41 Added:06/25/2014

To the Editor:

Heroin has made a comeback - oddly enough that has happened since we have been in Afghanistan. Why?

Is our law enforcement that ineffective? Are our legislators paying more attention to re-elections, pay raises and lobbyists? Is there no enforceable plan to stop the terrible destruction caused by the use of this drug? Where is the "War on Drugs"? Do more "people of power" need to lose loved ones to this?

Where does heroin come from? How is it that the media never tells us that 90 percent or more of the heroin found on our streets and in the arms of our dead young people comes from Afghanistan! The very place where our soldiers are dying to keep Afghanis free! No wonder the tribal leaders of

[continues 80 words]

44 US VA: Column: A Growing Epidemic: Useless GovernmentWed, 11 Jun 2014
Source:Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Author:Hinkle, A. Barton Area:Virginia Lines:117 Added:06/15/2014

The trouble with government, P.J. O'Rourke once observed, is that nobody ever wants to say, "Stick a fork in it - it's done." In support of that thesis Virginia has recently provided Exhibits No. 3,487,912 and 3,487,913.

Exhibit No. 3,487,912: Last week, the state's congressional delegation - both senators and every congressman except Bobby Scott - wrote a letter to Gov. Terry McAuliffe urging him to set up a task force to address the "growing heroin epidemic in Virginia." Many localities, they note, "are on track to see double the number of heroin overdose deaths over last year."

[continues 834 words]

45 US VA: PUB LTE: End Prohibition Of MarijuanaThu, 05 Jun 2014
Source:Roanoke Times (VA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:Virginia Lines:39 Added:06/07/2014

Regarding Reihan Salam's June 1 commentary ("Bring back Prohibition"):

Ending marijuana prohibition makes more sense than revisiting alcohol prohibition. States with medical marijuana access have seen a drop in fatal car accidents. Researchers believe that consumers are substituting marijuana for alcohol, leading to a reduction in drunken driving deaths. Marijuana is easily safer than alcohol, and the substitution effect is well documented.

The days when shameless politicians can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply-and-demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The U.S. has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana is legal.

[continues 71 words]

46 US VA: OPED: Bring Back ProhibitionSun, 01 Jun 2014
Source:Roanoke Times (VA) Author:Salam, Reihan Area:Virginia Lines:117 Added:06/01/2014

America is rushing headlong toward legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. A growing majority - 54 percent as of a Pew survey released in April - favor legalization, and an even larger majority of millennials (69 percent) feels the same way. Colorado and Washington are the first states to move decisively in this direction, but they won't be the last.

I basically think this is an OK development. Like Mark Kleiman, a public policy professor at UCLA who is my guru on the regulation of controlled substances, I see full commercial legalization as a truly terrible idea, while I think noncommercial legalization, ideally via monopolies owned and operated by state governments, would be an improvement over the status quo. Regardless, marijuana legalization is coming, one way or another.

[continues 836 words]

47 US VA: PUB LTE: Legalizing Marijuana Could Help AddictsThu, 29 May 2014
Source:Rappahannock News (VA) Author:White, Stan Area:Virginia Lines:36 Added:05/31/2014

If Americans honestly want to lower heroin addiction rates as last week's story suggests ["Heroin: It's here, and there are consequences"], they should end marijuana prohibition. An important reason to end marijuana prohibition that doesn't get mentioned is because a ban increases hard drug addiction rates by putting citizens who choose to use the relatively safe plant into contact with people who often also sell hard drugs.

Furthermore, the government claims heroin is no worse than marijuana - and that methamphetamine and cocaine are less harmful drugs - by insisting marijuana is a schedule I substance (alongside heroin), while methamphetamine and cocaine are only schedule II substances.

How many citizens tried marijuana and realized it is not nearly as dangerous as claimed and believed other substances must not be either - - only to find themselves addicted to hard drugs? Can the message from marijuana prohibitionists be any worse for vulnerable citizens?

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

48 US VA: Heroin: It's Here, And There Are ConsequencesThu, 22 May 2014
Source:Rappahannock News (VA) Author:Piantadosi, Roger Area:Virginia Lines:161 Added:05/23/2014

Today, heroin is cheaper and, being illegal, easier for addicts to obtain than prescription painkillers. The consequences - a dramatic nationwide rise in overdose deaths since last year, increased thefts and related crimes, crowded jails, overtaxed social services - are not just making headlines across the country and in the neighboring counties and cities of Virginia's Piedmont. They're here. "It would be a mistake to think Rappahannock County is somehow immune," said Virginia State Police Captain Gary Settle, a Rappahannock native who heads the VSP's Bureau of Criminal Investigations at its Culpeper Division headquarters, at a roundtable discussion and interview last week with the Rappahannock News - a forum attended by Rappahannock County Sheriff Connie C. Smith and other state police special agents and investigators who lead VSP's drug-enforcement efforts in the region.

[continues 1160 words]

49 US VA: Teen Spice User: 'It's The New Crack'Sun, 18 May 2014
Source:Daily Press (Newport News,VA) Author:Salasky, Prue Area:Virginia Lines:138 Added:05/20/2014

Rehab, drug court gives NN teen new life

NEWPORT NEWS -- Spice took over his life in middle school. Nothing else mattered. Being high became the norm.

At 12, he picked up his first cigarette. Soon the Newport News teen, now 18, was smoking marijuana, too. "Cigarettes and weed," he said in a single breath, making no distinction. "Weed was just part of life. I smoked weed all the time -- after school, every weekend."

Halfway through eighth grade, he moved on to spice, which had the advantage of being cheaper and, at the time, both legally obtainable and undetectable in drug screens.

[continues 955 words]

50 US VA: Spice Sellers Undisturbed In Newport News, HamptonSun, 18 May 2014
Source:Daily Press (Newport News,VA) Author:Shapiro, Michael Welles Area:Virginia Lines:132 Added:05/20/2014

Police Mum on Potential Investigations

NEWPORT NEWS -- If you listen to the U.S. Navy, Newport News and Hampton are problem cities for the retail sale of spice.

But unlike nearby counties the two cities haven't raided stores that sell spice, which a local prosecutor and a defense attorney both say has everything to do with a state statute that makes convictions tricky.

There's one standard for sailors and another one -- a higher one -- for a prosecutor seeking a conviction, said Anton Bell, Hampton's commonwealth's attorney.

[continues 614 words]


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